Hangar 9 ASH 31 ~ 6.4m ARF

[JimD]

Ali, my comment about the wing covers was in no way meant as a criticism. My take was the covers were intended to protect the parts during shipping (which they did superbly) but might be used further as transport covers (which they could be). The model is beautifully crafted and I think we can all say "job well done!" Thank you for all you do for our hobby!

[Sinkhappens86]

Disregard about the screws! Apparently the correct ones are included in the kit!

[Sinkhappens86]

Ended up not having to work today! Since the big airplane is broken, the little airplanes get some love.

The first step in the manual is to cut holes in the root of the tip for your servo extensions, luckily this is already done, as you can see in previous photos.

Started off setting up the servo mounts for the ailerons in the wing tips. The manual has you place the servo on the mount and cut away enough of the mount to clear the servo arm.




Next step was to install the servo to the mount. Ran into an issue here. The screws that come with the servo are too small and drop right through the hole in the servo mount. A standard servo screw will not fit through the screw slots in the servo. Will have to source some different screws to install the servo.





This prevented me from finishing the servo install, so instead I installed the aileron horns, built some extensions for the aileron servos and glued in the anti rotation pins.

[Soaranator]

Ali:

I considered the bags a freebie, and realize how problems like this can happen. Thank you for making it right, and a huge thanks to everyone on the HH team for developing and producing a fantastic model!

Bill

[BryanB]

Bags or no bags I'm very happy with the model Ali! A minor detail in my mind. Great job!

[Mosquito]

Ali, you have done a fabulous job my friend.

Tim

[Sinkhappens86]

Thanks for all the updates through this whole process Ali. It's been great to see the way you've engaged with the scale soaring community to make this glider a success. Looking forward to getting mine finished and flying!

[Ali Machinchy]

It is great to hear that some of you are receiving your 31's. Thank you very much to all of you for your patience. This has been a real learning curve for all of us involved and we are working hard on making headway into the back orders. Unfortunately there is just no way to produce these at the same rate as our typical wooden Arf's.

Regarding the bags. This a great example of things going wrong for want of doing right. let me explain.

From a very early stage in the ASH development, I knew that I wanted to ship each kit with some form of protective bag. Not only for shipping from the factory, but also bags that could be used by the end user to protect their investment.
The sample bags that were sent worked well, but they were a little light and required careful use to prevent them from tearing. I asked the factory if this could be improved upon. They said that they could not source the material and it was left at that. When I unpacked and checked models from the first shipment, I was pleasantly surprised to see that the factory had provided bags that while looking the same. Felt a lot more stout! It was immediately apparent that they had double walled the bags. Not only was the protective material on the outside. It was now also on the inside. Initially I was super happy about this and because all of the components were shipped wrapped in clear bags before they were put inside the protective bags. I did not see any of the silver material transfer. The double wall make up of the bags also explains why the bags seem to have shrunk.
Anyway. Fast forward a week or two and it became quickly apparent that something that we were including to make the ASH more practical and in someway more enjoyable to live with. Turns out to be actually causing more stress. Exactly the opposite of what I had hoped for?
Lots of correspondence with the factory and I have managed to get them to agree to alter the bag material and the way they are made. Not only that. I have made it very clear that I would like replacement bags sent for all of the ASH's that we have delivered thus far.
I wont imagine that this will be anytime soon. I anticipate that they will ship the replacement bags with the next sea container of air frames that are sent to the USA ( Sorry I dont know when that is right now ) I will keep this thread ( and others ) updated. I will also speak to our sales team to see if I can get all the info for the first batch delivered. Hopefully I can straighten up all those customers from the first order?
Sorry once again.
Regards Ali

[Newman12]

Those are looking really good Tim, are you going to do a fuse bag too?

[ARUP]

Those are looking nice!

[Mosquito]

It might look like I stole Santas clothing but it's merely a coincidence. I finished the second inner wing bags today. I made a pocket that is attached to one cover to store the carbon wingtip rods. It's one of those items that we leave at home only to discover that at the field. This should reduce my odds of doing that, I hope.Tomorrow I'll make up the outer wing bags and start on the rudder cover and a bag for the removable wingtips. Sadly, I will discard the silver bags that came with the glider unless I can think of another use for them. Great idea had they used a better material.


Tim

[kjkavaney]

Another Singer sewing machine that was sold in more numbers is the Singer 201 (late 40's) , also gear driven and works like Tim's. A modification that Tim and I did on these machines was to add an aluminum arm with a knob that lets ya hand crank through the "prickly" side of the sew on Velcro that Tim mentioned in his post. It requires you to take the silver hub off the fly wheel part of the machine and drill and tap....I did mine in 6-32 ...it is small enough that it does not affect the machine when using the motor for all the other sewing. use a # 10 needle or so with heavy thread. Also, much like changing razor blades frequently when doing ultra coat, change the needle on the sewing machine every new project. I am about to start my wing bags and stab bags for my Cmelak this week.

[Mosquito]

Bryan, double faced quilted. Comes in several colors.

Tim

[BryanB]

What's the fabric called? My wife practically supports our local Joannes.

[ARUP]

Nice work, ... honey! I'm going to find one of those machines!!!